In March, GW International Institute of Tourism Studies (IITS) Executive Director Seleni Matus organized and moderated a session of Tribal leaders on “Fostering Indigenous Community Development through Regional Native Tourism Alliances” during the 38th Annual Reservation Economic Summit (RES) 2024 in Las Vegas.
Ed Hall, GW IITS Executive in Residence for Indigenous Tourism and Economic Development, organized and moderated a session of federal agency officials on “Federal NATIVE Act Success Stories.”
RES Attracts Thousands of Leaders
RES features high-caliber networking, teaming opportunities, business development sessions, and one-on-one consulting, all centered around American Indian Enterprise. Held annually, this year’s summit drew more than four thousand participants, including Tribal leaders, members of Congress, federal agencies, state and local officials, and top national company CEOs on a national platform. The event also features a business matchmaking marketplace.
Regional Indigenous Tourism Alliance Success
Each representative from the regional tourism alliances shared their stories about how they began, their goals, achievements, and the impact of forming alliances on regional tourism development.
Tribes in the US have the natural and cultural assets to develop quality tourism experiences but often lack the resources to develop and implement tourism programs. Since 2013, the George Washington University International Institute of Tourism Studies (GW IITS) has provided technical support to tribes for tourism planning, management, and development.
Speakers included in the session on Native tourism alliances moderated by Seleni Matus were Ivan Sorbel, Executive Director at Pine Ridge Area Chamber of Commerce and Chairman of the South Dakota Native Tourism Alliance; Charlene Virgilio, Executive Director at Four Directions Development Corporation and Wabanaki Tourism Initiative; Darian Morsette, Executive Director at Mandan Hidatsa Arikara Tourism and President of the North Dakota Native Tourism Alliance; and, Jennifer Finley, Councilor of the Confederated Salish Kootenai and member of the Montana Indigenous Tourism Alliance.
Matus has collaborated with each panelist, having led GW IITS teams working with three of these Native tourism alliances on researching and creating sustainable tourism development plans: South Dakota, North Dakota, and the Wabanaki Tourism Initiative. The fourth panelist, Jennifer Finlay, was a speaker at the First Annual Indigenous Leaders Lecture Series event, which GW IITS co-hosted in December on Accelerating Indigenous Tourism Development.
North Dakota Native Tourism
The Native tourism initiative in North Dakota began when the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa received a grant from the Northwest Area Foundation in the Pathways to Prosperity Program. Research identified tourism as a component of economic development, which led to a contract with George Washington and the creation of the North Dakota Native Tourism Alliance (NDNTA).
GW assisted the North Dakota Native Tourism Alliance with planning, training, and preparing for the formal launch of Native American Cultural Tours, its tour operation arm. The tours bring NDNTA closer to establishing itself as a major regional Native American tourism powerhouse. GW continues to mentor the North Dakota alliance and helped secure a $600,000 grant for ongoing work.
Led by panelist Darian Morsette, NDNTA continues to implement the plan GW IITS helped them create. The Alliance has 27 members including all five tribes, the North Dakota Indian Affairs Office, and the North Dakota Business Alliance.
South Dakota Native Tourism
With tribal leadership and the strong support and involvement of South Dakota’s Secretary of Tourism Jim Hagan, GW helped create the South Dakota Native Tourism Alliance (SDNTA), develop their tourism capacity, and establish a great new cultural tourism product to market, the South Dakota Native Tour. The tour has been tested in cooperation with Destination America, a global tour operator, and is now operational.
The South Dakota alliance, is led by Chairman Ivan Sorbel. Its membership includes representatives from all nine tribes, community organizations, tourism-related businesses, Travel South Dakota, CDFIs, and federal agencies.
Montana Indigenous Tourism Alliance
Seeing the success in the Dakotas, the Montana Indigenous Tourism Alliance (MITA) was created and ratified by the Rocky Mountain Tribals Leaders Council with the help of Virginia Technical University (VA Tech). All of Montana’s Tribes except one are involved in MITA, and Jennifer Finley described the MITA work that has helped her tribe, the Salish Kootenai, gain tourism capacity. In Montana, VA Tech assessed the current tourism situation in seven Tribal communities for strategic, culturally appropriate, and sustainable tourism destination development opportunities.
Maine’s Wabanaki Cultural Tourism Initiative
Assisted by the Maine Office of Tourism, and with facilitation and research by GW IITS, the Four Directions Development Corporation, led by RES panelist Charlene Virgilio, is helping Maine’s Wabanaki tribes create a cultural tourism plan. The plan is set to finish in the summer of 2024.
Federal NATIVE Act Success Stories
The second RES panel featured speakers from three agencies with vested interests in seeing Native tourism efforts thrive.
Hall is a former Bureau of Indian Affairs Tourism Coordinator and was the perfect choice to moderate a discussion on federal agency support for Native tourism in the U.S. Participating as speakers were Toby Bloom, National Forest Service Program Manager for Travel, Tourism and Interpretation; Curt Cottle, Senior Policy Analyst for the National Travel and Tourism Office of the International Trade Administration; and Rebekah Horsechief, Economic Development Specialist with the Office of Indian Economic Development.
National Forest Service
Toby Bloom, National Program Manager, Travel, Tourism, and Interpretation, USDA Forest Service, spoke first in the session, giving an overview of the NATIVE Act.
The NATIVE Act (Public Law 114-221) was designed to enhance and integrate Native American tourism into the U.S. tourism effort, empower Native American communities, increase coordination and collaboration between Federal tourism assets, and expand heritage and cultural tourism.
Bloom‘s office includes the Office of Tribal Relations, Heritage Programs, and Tourism and Interpretation, and has seen recent budget increases through the NATIVE Act for tribal partnerships and representation on National Forest Service lands. In August 2022, a zero percent match requirement for Tribal Partners became Forest Service National Policy. Since then, Bloom’s office has awarded six no-match tribal tourism grants for $129,000-$250,000 in 2022 and received $1 million from Congress to fund proposals for FY24.
The Recreation Economies for Rural Communities (RERC) Program is also strengthening rural and Native tourism, funding 25 communities in 2022, including the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe - Akwesasne, NY; Seneca Nation - Salamanca, NY; and Haines Economic Development Corporation - Haines, AK. The RERC FY24 Call for Proposals is out soon at Recreation Economy for Rural Communities | US EPA.
U.S. Department of Commerce
Curt Cottle, Senior Policy Advisor, National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO), International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce reported on travel and tourism’s importance to the U.S. economy and the success of Native tourism efforts. His statistics included:
- Travel and tourism supports 7.4 million American jobs through $1.7 trillion in economic activity.
- 1.1 million overseas visitors engaged with American Indian Communities during the first three-quarters of Q32023 – nearly 1 in 20 overseas travelers visiting the United States
- Each overseas visitor who engaged with American Indian Communities spent $2,800 in the United States in 2022, significantly higher than the $1,800 spent by overseas visitors in general
- The largest international source markets for Indian Country are Canada, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and South Korea. The top activities are sightseeing, (86%), shopping (85%), and visiting National Parks and Monuments (79%).
- The U.S. National Travel and Tourism Strategy’s overarching goal is to attract 90 million visitors spending $279 billion annually by 2027.
- International visitation to the United States should reach 97 million by 2028 after increasing from 67 million in 2023 to 85 million in 2025.
Office of Indian Economic Development
Rebekah HorseChief from the Osage Nation closed the Federal agency session. HorseChief serves in the Office of Indian Economic Development (OIED) in the Office of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Under the NATIVE Act, OIED is funded by Congress to offer several financial resources to Native tourism efforts. OIED funds a cooperative agreement/Memorandum of Understanding of up to $2 million with a national Native organization to fulfill the mandates of the NATIVE Act; offered $1-2 million in grants for tribal tourism-related feasibility studies, business plan development, and other tourism-related projects; offered technical assistance, training, webinars; and, supported the Office of Native Hawaiian cultural preservation grants.
OIED has also supported the Indigenous Tourism Collaboration of the Americas (ITCA), an international network of Indigenous leaders, tourism businesses, nonprofits, academics, and policymakers dedicated to developing sustainable tourism that respects cultural heritage, amplifies Indigenous voices, supports self-governance, protects nature, and fosters healing and reunification. In 2022, OIED also funded North and South Dakota Regional Native Tourism Alliances in their work with GW IITS and work in Montana and Virginia Native Tourism Alliances conducted by Virginia Technical University Pamplin College of Business.
Showcase for GW IITS’ Regional Approach to Native Tourism Development
GW IITS was honored by the invitation to organize Native tourism sessions at RES, a National Native economic development conference with an enormous impact on Indian Country and a perfect opportunity to showcase the leading regional Native tourism development efforts in the country today.
